Browns' wait worthwhile

CLEVELAND -- They won and waited. And then, the Browns were forced to wait some more before they could celebrate.

After taking nearly every game this season down to the final excruciating seconds, Cleveland, and its playoffs chances, had to survive three hours of sudden death. Could there be any other way?

Rookie William Green ran for 178 yards and scored on a 64-yard run with 3:53 left Sunday, giving the Browns a 24-16 win over the Atlanta Falcons.

But Cleveland's first postseason berth since 1994 wasn't secured until hours later, when the Jets beat Green Bay.

"This is just how our season has been," receiver Quincy Morgan said. "Everything hanging from a thread."

The Browns went from an expansion team to the playoffs in four years. The franchise moved to Baltimore and became the Ravens in 1996, and Cleveland was awarded an expansion team in 1999, and the league ruled that the Browns' records and history would belong to the new team.

Also appropriate for this crazy season, the Falcons lost and made it to the playoffs anyway. Atlanta backed into the NFC playoffs as a wild card when New Orleans lost at home to Carolina. Atlanta last appeared in the postseason in 1998, when it went to the Super Bowl.